By chance, did anyone notice the new “fav-icon” for our blog? Devin spent more than a few hours last week crafting the little icon of St. Joseph which is now our blog’s signature. Good work, my brilliant husband!
During the Seder meal, the youngest guest traditionally asks a set of formalized questions. Â
“On all other nights, we eat both leavened and unleavened bread. Why, on this night, do we eat only unleavened bread?” “On all other nights, we eat both bitter and sweet herbs. Why, on this night, do we eat only bitter herbs?” (Courtney, remember, ”bitter herbs” must be pronounced with a British accent. 
) “Why is this night different from all other nights?”Â
Why is this night different from all other nights?Â
I wonder if Our Lady participated in a Seder meal on that Thursday night, the night that her Son was to enter His Passion. And, I wonder what she must have known, in her woman’s heart, in answer to that question. Why is this night different from all other nights?Â
Because, she might have said, because this night, we are lead out of the Egypt of the flesh, we are led from slavery to freedom, to forgiveness, to new life. Because, my Son is the New Moses who will lead you through the waters of baptism to the Promised Land.Â
I wonder how she must have felt, that night. Did she pray for her Son that night, pray for strength to be faithful to His Mission. Did she keep vigil with Mary Magdalene? Â
Her heart must have burst with joy, even as it broke, because she must have known, even a little, that this night was different from all other nights. It was for this that her Son had come, for this that He was born of woman, born under the Law. Oh, Mother, please teach me to have a heart like yours. YKC!
I’ve had enough of bad movies–I’m ready for good movies.
Katie and I have different movie tastes and thresholds. Spiderman I and II are part of my collection, but Katie doesn’t like them because she feels a movie should not just entertain but have positive value (i.e. help lead the person who watches it to holiness, to Heaven).
I can argue that Spiderman does that at least a little bit, with its portrayal of good versus evil, the moral dilemmas of Peter Parker, etc., but it still isn’t as edifying spiritually as other movies are (which are not yet a part of our collection).
So, in order to find good movies that both of us want to watch, we are now choosing movies that we buy together, and recently we ordered “On the Waterfront” and “I Confess”.
Tonight, we are watching “I Confess”, which has a great premise, and I will post my own amateur review soon.
(5/5/07–I have lightly edited this post, due to the helpful feedback of a blog reader.)
Yesterday, I sat in the Capitol committee room, E2.010 for 8 hours. I was thrilled and frustrated and proud and moved to tears.
You see, yesterday was the marathon committee hearing of the House State Affairs committee, which heard all the pro-life and pro-abortion bills–ten total, six pro-life and four pro-abortion. It was my first experience of a State Affairs committee hearing and an amazingly instructive experience for me.
The hearing began around 4:30p, with the chairman, David Swinford (R-Dumas), calling the committee to order. The first two hours were spent in testimony from the various representatives presenting their bills. It was rather boring and, also, frustrating, as one of the two pro-abortion members on the nine-person committee grilled the witnesses.
Then, at about 6:40p, the good stuff started, with woman upon woman sharing her abortion story. Abortion hurts women. The message was clear. It truly must have been 3:1 with regard to pro-life and pro-abortion witnesses; in fact, one pro-life Rep. said, “It’s good to see so many pro-lifers. There used to be more of them (pro-abortion) and us.”
It was incredible to hear the silence of the room as the post-abortive women shared their stories, their voices often thick with tears. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. Whatever is spoken in secret will be heard in the light. No one would light a lamp and set it under a bushel basket. They were the most amazing and brave women, and I rejoice that the post-abortive message is growing in momentum, not to be silenced, please God, until women can no longer be wounded by the scourge of abortion. YKC!
…’til we get our bees.
But who’s counting? 
So says Winnie the Pooh in an old story.
First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee." Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey." And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.
Mom and Pops Bateson visited Katie and me in Austin for the first time this past weekend!
We relaxed a lot but also did a lot, including, planting a small vineyard (5 vines) in our backyard, tomato plants and peppers in our garden, encircling our garden with the black plastic divider stuff to keep out the grass, going to The Domain for the first time (ooh lah lah), and going to Mass at St. William’s.
We also told two neighbors about our plan to get honey bees, and none of them had a problem with it! One of them saw our “boxes” in the backyard and asked if it was some kind of composting system, so Katie informed her that it was actually going to house our hive of bees. Then I told our next-door neighbors, whose fence the bee hive faces, and they brushed it off quite non-chalantly.
Here are some pictures of our weekend:
Mom Bateson cooking pizza with Katie:
Garden, apiary, vineyard, compost:
Our neighbor’s beautiful rose-bush spilling over our fence just beside our bee hive.
My dad and step-mom came over to help and also gave us some plants, and one night we had my mom and a Legionary priest named Father Andrew over for dinner–it was very joyful and good, topped off by Mass in the beautiful St. William’s parish that included an excellent and brief homily by Father Joel and insightful words just after the consecration of Jesus’ real presence in the Blessed Sacrament “here in Round Rock Texas, in March of 2007″.
Deo gratias!
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